According to the United States Department of Labor, the total number of unemployment claims has reached an unimaginable count of 8,014,919. This is not good news for employers. The costs associated with unemployment compensation continues to increase and employers are trying to do whatever they can to keep these costs to a minimum.

We all understand that there are issues beyond our control that cause unemployment such as a health issue, mental instability, inability to perform the required duties for a job, lack of education, transportation issues, company lay offs and cutbacks or just a simple lack of job openings in your city. The economy continues to struggle and with unemployment on the rise, it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Keep in mind that the unemployment figures do not include all of the people who can no longer claim unemployment benefits because they have claimed it for too long already. It would be cold-hearted to deny unemployment benefits to people who have become unemployed for reasons that they could not control.

If you have a business and are trying to figure out if your unemployment claims cost control efforts have been a success, you should ask yourself a couple of questions.


Have you pursued all of the possible contestable issues?

Contestable issues includes a situation where an employee agrees to voluntary quit the job because they were involved in willful misconduct.

If all of the possible contestable issues are not being pursued against unemployment claims, you should ask yourself why. Claim forms that are piling up and not being taken care of on time will result in the loss of the right to respond to or dispute the unemployment claim. If there was any misconduct involved, it is important to inform the Human Resources Department of the situation so they can make a record of the incident. Unemployment claims should be handled in a consistent manner by keeping all of the information in one central location. If you fail to contest the unemployment claims, it will negatively affect your unemployment costs. Pursuing as many contestable issues as you can will help keep your unemployment costs down to a minimum.

Are you wining most of the claims which you are contesting?

If your answer is “no”, it is important to find out why you are not winning most claim disputes. You need to make sure that you have all of the necessary information readily available to help you win your claim dispute. It may be easier to win contested claims involving voluntary job resignations, but if you are not winning other claim disputes that involve discharging an employee for misconduct then you should seek professional assistance to put together a more solid dispute against the former employee as to why they should not receive unemployment benefits.

If you have kept good records and documented all incidents in a timely manner, then you should have all the information that is needed to win a claim dispute. This information must be presented to the State.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

As is the case with many companies in the retail industry, because of a subpar hiring process, a large retailer was experiencing many business disruptions associated with the hiring of less than desirable employees. Employee theft was up, as were customer service complaints. After analyzing the situation, the company realized that both situations were rooted in the same source -- improper and incomplete vetting of potential employees during the hiring process. The company was also suffering through a Department of Homeland Security audit for problems concerning the eligibility of some of their employees hired through this process. In many cases, the company simply did not screen potential employees in order to save money, money which they were quickly finding was not worth the risk to save.

Obviously in need of a more precise solution for new hires, the company employed the services of Pre-employ.com to standardize and automate a background screening process and ensure employment eligibility compliance with the government. The company implemented the pre-employment background screening process, which did incur an extra cost per employee. However, the company soon recouped its investment and realized a substantial return with the subsequent decrease in employee thefts after the background check implementation. The company also chose to outsource its entire employment eligibility process to the solely dedicated and automated pre-employ.com service. Fully employing pre-employ.com served as company best practice, as it freed their manpower to focus on business operations. The company also realized full return and profit on their investment in the rate of non-incidence of non-compliance. No longer spending money defending itself from audits, the company again realized savings far beyond the cost incurred.

Overall, the company enjoyed savings of $650,000 over the next five years because of the changes implemented by Pre-employ.com. The company also enjoyed the peace of mind of full compliance with government standards for employment eligibility. Also, as mentioned before, employee theft and customer complaints were considerably decreased as a direct result of programs implemented by Pre-employ.com.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Today, a vast majority of employers perform a background check of potential new-hires, and these applicants are required to supply them with their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This includes their name, date of birth and Social Security number, which is exactly the data needed in order commit identity theft. In such a situation, virtually nothing exists to ensure an individual's data privacy.

Hidden danger

The typical job applicant is unaware that his or her PII may be forwarded to a data repository or off-shore call center, with virtually no consideration for privacy protection—minus the security that privacy laws in the United States provide. (Note that the European Union (EU) states are an exception in regard to this trend.) This can be done because there is no requirement to notify prospective employees when their personal information will be transmitted to a location outside our borders and it is not given the protection it deserves.

Currently, job candidates’ PII is often sent “off shore” to labor markets whose standards are lower than those prevailing in the United State, and the aim is to increase the employer’s bottom line. When this is done, little thought is given to the notion that handling the personal information in this manner means that these applicants are at great risk of identity theft.

Common practice

An employee’s PII is often “re-purposed” by various background screening companies, used in some other product or format, and then sold to a variety of customers who then resell the data numerous times. Today, this practice is a breeding ground for the loss of privacy and widespread identity theft.
The result is that there is no practical way for American citizens to protect themselves from identity theft overseas. The prohibitive cost makes it impossible for them to seek the assistance of foreign police, rely on foreign courts or file a legal complaint when their identity is stolen. Consequently, they are totally unprotected.

Where Pre-Employ.com fits in

As a major employer-service provider and background-check company, we aim to protect employee’s PII. With this in mind, we adhere to the policy that it is never to be repurposed, resold or sent outside the United States without your written permission. For additional information, view our Data Privacy webinar at http://www.pre-employ.com/Webinars/Data-Privacy-Webinars.aspx.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Last week, a man who for years had been tops on a California city's Most Wanted list was arrested -- on a cruise ship. And he wasn't a passenger. As reported by the Oakland Tribune and USA Today's Cruise Log, Bulgarian Kaloyan Kaloyanov, who was wanted for a sexual assault case that took place in 2000, was working onboard Carnival Splendor as the manager of the ship's hair salon. He'd been working onboard cruise ships for several years, employed by Steiner Leisure, the company that manages the spas and salons on many cruise ships.

How did a wanted criminal get a job onboard a cruise ship? The story made us wonder just how cruise lines, and the companies that hire for them, screen candidates for onboard jobs (as well as onshore ones, as in the case of the cruise line employee who used information about cruise passengers to rob their homes while they were away). It's extremely important to travelers that the people who go into their cabins to clean while they're onshore or the counselors looking after their children in the kids' clubs do not have past histories of theft, abusive behavior or other criminal activities.

We contacted Steiner, as well as a few cruise lines, to find out about their hiring practices. Here's what we learned:

Background checks are an essential part of the hiring process. "Carnival conducts background checks for all shipboard and shoreside personnel," Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher tells us. "Background checks on all non-U.S. shipboard personnel are conducted by agencies in the candidates' home country and a certified criminal history document for the country of origin is required." Glenn Fusfield, chief operating officer of Steiner Leisure, says that every job applicant for an onboard position is required to supply a police record and background check with official seals -- the company can tell when the documents are faked.

"If there's record of a prior arrest or a conviction, we handle that on an individual basis," says Fusfield. "In some cases, the candidate would automatically be disqualified. But it might be that they have something lingering from their past that won't interfere with their current job, or the people have moved on." He maintains that Kaloyanov had a "clean and perfect" background check from his home country when Steiner hired him.

The cruise line or hiring company is not the only organization to run background checks. "The U.S. State Department oversees the issuance of seamen's visas to foreign nationals who sail with ships into U.S. ports," says Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara Club Cruises. "Therefore the U.S. embassy in the crewmember's country of origin conducts background checks in connection with the issuance of seamen's visas." In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs checks on ships' manifests, which include all crewmembers onboard, each time a ship enters and leaves U.S. ports. Other countries have similar practices. So even if the hiring agency misses a red flag, the government is looking out for wanted persons entering the country on cruise ships.

And what if a crewmember has a clean record, but gets in trouble after being hired? Says Martinez, "Any crew dismissed from employment for Royal Caribbean for violation of our zero-tolerance policies is not eligible for re-hire with our company."

Given all these checks and screenings, it's surprising that a wanted criminal like Kaloyanov cruised undetected for years, but it also indicates that his case is highly unusual.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

A story on Examiner.com should serve as a wakeup call to businesses and show that any company can potentially lose thousands – possibly millions – of dollars through employee theft, fraud, and embezzlement.

According to the article, the former Vice President of Finance at stereo headphone maker Koss Corporation was arrested by the FBI for allegedly embezzling $4.5 million from the company over the course of a few months, and a preliminary audit has determined that the embezzlement could exceed $20 million since 2006.

The alleged embezzler, who had worked at Koss since 1992 before being fired, claimed she was a compulsive shopper or “shopaholic” – a condition known clinically as “oniomania” – and the article cites several examples of shopaholics resorting to embezzlement to feed their addiction:

• An information technology manager embezzled $3.7 million from Starbucks in the late 1990's to purchase several hundred Barbie Dolls and a collection of expensive cars.
• A Chicago management consultant embezzled nearly a quarter million dollars from her employer to use in shopping sprees for clothing and jewelry.
• A corporate chief financial officer embezzled almost $3 million from her employer, Lube USA, to purchase clothing, shoes, and jewelry.

Besides businesses, religious organizations, non-profits, and schools can also fall prey to embezzlement, Examiner.com reports, and all are advised to use security controls to help prevent embezzlement in the workplace. One way to lessen the risk of embezzlement is through an effective pre-employment screening program that includes criminal background checks. While not every embezzler has a prior criminal record, background checks can reveal much information about prospective employees to potential employers.

The Koss embezzlement case should make businesses aware that employee theft and fraud can happen to any organization. Pre-Employ.com – a nationally recognized background check provider – helps businesses ensure a more secure and ethical workplace that can limit the financial risk of – and public embarrassment from – embezzlement. For more information on how background checks can help curb employee theft, fraud, and embezzlement, please visit www.pre-employ.com, email info@pre-employ.com, or call 800-300-1821.

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